The Renegade Maiden
by Kitty Matrix
Summary: Mainframe is once more at peace and all seems to be well. But when three mysterious visitors from the future arrive in Mainframe, the net is thrown into termoil. Now they must find a way to survive and save the net. M/A B/D R/M OC/OC E/?.
1. Chapter One: Fun With Guns, Renegade Int...

Okay, hello, my name is Kitty Matrix. I am not new to the fanfic scene, but to the ReBoot scene I definitely am. I write fanfiction under different alias names, each for basically a different fandom. My ReBoot stories will always be under this alias.

This is my second attempt at a ReBoot fanfiction, the first was actually considered a prequel to this called _Too Little Too Late_ but you don't need to read it, its kind of just a side story that just goes a little bit more in depth into two major events previous to the beginning of this story which the main character goes into during this story anyways.

The time system in this story goes the way I think it does. Please do not e-mail me saying you believe it is this way because I don't think its ever really explained in ReBoot the series.

Nanosecond – Second

Nano – Minute

Millisecond – Hour

Second – Day

Minute – Week

Cycle – Month

Hour – Year

Okay now that I have that over and done with I have one last comment. This story is rated between PG-13 and R depending on how graphic I go into details later. This story shall not become a hentai (NC17), I do not write hentai stories so please do not request them.

**The Renegade Maiden**

**Chapter One – Fun With Guns, Renegade Introductions **

**By Kitty Matrix**

_"I come from the Future_

_I travel through_

_Systems, peoples and cities_

_To this place_

_Mainframe_

_My Birthplace_

_My Format Renegade Guardian_

_To Mend, Defend and_

_Kick Some ASCII"_****

The game launched its self from above the desolate pits of the nearly non-existent system. Glancing around her, she took in the last of the system, and remembered the vicious ways it had been shredded to show the pain and suffering that had once held so much hope. This place was all that remained of Hard Drive, sister city of her home city Mainframe that somehow had been lost within the web when the final great viral infection occurred.

For long hours she had searched for Mainframe, trying to find where it had been lost to within the web, but alas, no results would produce themselves.

But for this moment, the current time's Mainframe was not her greatest worry, but the past's.

Long ago her grandfather had documented a way in which he believed sprites could over come the waves of time by game hopping with a special upgrade of their icons. She had recently traveled to Hard Drive to retrieve these all records, which she had been notified about through an old diary entry on her aunt's data pad that she had given to her niece before the final great viral infection. Only now, twelve hours after the initial occurrence, did she begin to access her aunt's data pad and discovered exactly what her aunt's plans had been. Her aunt had left a detailed plan of what to do if an emergency arose within Mainframe of her sister system (which was more like a sister city) Hard Drive. Escape to the past and try to repair what went wrong.

That was the only reason why she stepped foot within the dismal decaying system of Hard Drive, to receive Mainframe's back up files which contained the download which could be uploaded onto her icon. Shortly after she had heard the news of the incoming game.

Closing her eyes, the young datasprite felt someone's handclasp lightly onto her shoulder. Opening her eyes she laid eyes upon her only datasprite companion, her greatest friend, Troy Tracer.

As the game cube crashed down upon the two datasprites and their other companion, a large but old yet still ferocious sprite dog with a shiny red coat and yellow paws and nose.

Frowning she shrugged off his hand and reached forwards to the system that she was beginning to lose site of. A soft tear managed to roll down her cheek, though she didn't understand how.

The game cube would start a system crash within Hard Drive and for some reason she felt that the User wouldn't save it this time.

_Twenty-three Hours Previous_

Stretching lightly, Matrix placed his hand softly onto AndrAIa's bare arm. Smiling he lay a light kiss to the top of her head in her hair while rubbing his hand carefully up and down her arm. AndrAIa slowly opened her eyes, smiling lightly because of Matrix's soft and comforting movements.

"Morning lover," she said softly looking up into his eyes.

"Morning beautiful," he stated as AndrAIa reached up to brush her hand against his cheek.

"I could stay like this forever." She stated softly, removing her hand from his cheek and lower herself so that her head was against his chest.

Matrix smile brightened and he brushed his fingers through her hair.

"Marry me." He said as his left hand stroked her hair and his right stroked the bare skin of her arm.

"What?" she asked in confusion, turning herself so that once again she was looking into his eyes.

"Marry me." He said again, the look on his face becoming serious.

AndrAIa propped herself up on her elbow, the blankets resting comfortably around her waste.

"Are you serious?" she asked although she knew she didn't need to ask, the expression on his face said the answer.

"Yes," he said firmly yet lovingly, "marry me."

Smiling AndrAIa nestled the palm of her hand on his cheek. Then she released it once again, sliding down again so that the blankest covered her bare chest and her head was leaning on his muscular chest. Then she ran her hand up and down his chest smiling.

"Of course." She stated lovingly as they continued to lie there as the daylight desktop began to rise outside of their apartment window.

AndrAIa's hand rested comfortably on Matrix's, which was around her waste as they stood there before the crew of little Enzo, Dot, Bob, Mouse, and Ray at Dot's Diner. Smiling AndrAIa opened her mouth to speak as Matrix just turned away, refusing to be embarrassed or nervous in any way.

"Well you guys are probably wondering why we've called you guys all here right now," AndrAIa began nervously, but still the smile stayed bright on her face.

The group nodded curiously.

"Well you see this morning, uh, Matrix kind of asked, well uh, not really asked more like directed me to well, you see," AndrAIa, usually the cool and calm one was nervous. 

Matrix had never seen her so nervous before, not even when they had announced the fact they were lovers to Dot.

Finally giving in to his impatience, even though he had promised to let AndrAIa announce it, Matrix stated what AndrAIa was taking so long to say. "We're getting married."

Everyone's heads turned from AndrAIa to Matrix who shrugged simply while tightening his protective yet loving grip around AndrAIa's waist.

"Alphanumeric!" Enzo shouted jumping out of his seat but being pulled immediately down by Dot who just stared to the two datasprites before her.

Bob smiled brightly and got up from the end of the booth. Immediately he grasped a hold of Matrix's right hand and shook it hard.

Ray smiled and glanced at AndrAIa who sighed heavily in relief.

"Congrats mates!" he added in with a smile.

"Thanks Surfr," AndrAIa added, the stress having been lifted from her shoulders.

WARNING! INCOMING GAME! WARNING! INCOMING GAME!

"I guess we'll have to continue this later," Bob stated looking towards the group, "right now we have a game to win."

Enzo leapt up once again trying to get to the door but was quickly stopped by Dot who glared evilly at him.

"Leave them be Enzo, they don't need a little sprite in the games with them."

"Oh but Dot…"

"No buts Enzo Matrix." She stated sharply as she watched the others leave for the game. "Good luck!" she called after them as they left the Diner.

"Switch game stats!" Matrix shouted loudly at his new key tool given to him last minute when he had completed his short training at the Guardian Academy.

"So guardians what kind o' a game are we in?" Mouse asked intently looking about. They seemed to be in maze of some sort.

AndrAIa sighed heavily.

"Lover really you don't need to check Switch. We've been in this game a million times."

Matrix nodded as the game stats disappeared.

"We're on the last level of a game called 'Mummy Maze'. Basically we ReBoot into ancient mummies and try to stop the User from reaching the exit. But remember, there are traps stationed everywhere so watch your backs."

The game seemed easy enough for the group as they easily caught him three times, quickly ending the game.

But strangely enough when the five datasprites came out of the game, three other sprites followed them.

"Who?" AndrAIa asked as she noticed the three peculiar sprites. One of the sprites was Frisket, undoubtedly so, but somehow older. The other two were a mystery to the five.

There before them stood a young male datasprite, his eyes shadowed by purple and black tinted sunglasses that were positioned on his pale purple skin. His striking shinny red locks mesmerized as they glowed brightly with the light of the afternoon desktop overhead. He had a slight muscular build and wore a loose fitting button up dark navy nearly black t-shirt. Covering his muscular legs were tan pants, loose fitting yet not overly baggy and shinny black shoes graced his feet. He had a strange and peculiar looking icon on his shirt which was black in the traditional spots, red in the triangle, and blue on the spots that framed the black triangle. He had on a brownish belt, which held a sword on his left side and a dirk on his right.

His companion looked just as mysterious yet much more like a renegade. To someone who didn't know either Matrix or the new datasprite, they would have sworn they were siblings.

The datasprite was a woman, looked to be about the age of 2-0 along with her companion. Her skin was green, the colour of Matrix's. A black rap around visor, which matched the contours of her face and stuck to her face as though if it were to shift something would leak out from beneath it, covered her eyes. Her lips were a dark black, her eyebrows were a dark green, nearly black as well as the majority of her hair, minus the dark, aquatic, highlights around her face. Her hair was pulled back in a tight braid that went to the middle of her back. She wore a black chocker, along with a black leather wristband on her left wrist. She had a small black beauty mark on her upper left cheek and a black nose stud in her nose on the left side. She had nine black stud earrings from the top of her ear to the bottom along with one large stud with another dangling black stud a little bit below. This happened on both ears. She had a tattoo of an icon that was not filled in on her left up arm that seemed to almost be shadowed all over with black. Below that the word "Renegade" was plastered in a tattoo running around her arm like a stripe. She wore a tight black tank top with thick straps that, because of the middle neck line, showed a little bit of her red heart tattoo with an arrow through it on her upper centre chest. She had very short, tight black shorts gracing her lower body with two gun holster, one on either leg, attached to her upper thighs which had safety straps attached to her belt. In the centre of her black leather utility belt was a silver buckle which had on it her icon, which, like her companion's, was peculiar in that it looked like a guardian's icon but surrounding the black triangle was on the right side blue and the left side green. To finish off her outfit a green key tool hung from her belt and dark green, nearly black three inch healed boots, that rose high up her shin, were on her feet. She was obviously a guardian from the look of her, but whether she had attended that academy baffled Bob, after all she had a key tool but from the look of her she didn't appear to have a guardian approved outfit.

The two datasprites looked about them for a moment then nodded towards each other. Then the man took off his sunglasses, attaching them to his shirt collar. The woman continued to glance about until her gaze stopped upon the five datasprites before them.

Frisket was the first to move. His eyes wide with excitement, he began to run towards the five datasprites. Bounding up, he jumped onto Matrix, who caught the dog in surprise. Frisket licked him once excitedly before growling at Bob who gulped and stepped back, out of the dog's way.

The woman dashed forwards towards the five sprites.

"Frisket down boy!" she called as she stopped a few feet before them. Frisket immediately obeyed, jumping down from Matrix's arms and heading off to the woman who was down on one knee, patting Frisket lightly on the head before rising again.

Her companion strolled leisurely towards them, his dark eyes sparkling. He had a light smile plastered on his face.

"Seems ole Frisket made a friend there luv," he commented continuing to smile.

The woman turned her head upwards towards her companion and from the grimace on her face everyone could tell she must have been glaring at him.

"Troy after all the hours we've known each other how many time have I told you NOT to call me 'luv'. User forbid you would actually listen to me for once!" She snapped out angrily.

The male datasprite, Troy, just smiled sheepishly.

"Sorry luv," he chuckled lightly.

The woman stood, lifting her right gun from its holster pointing it towards Troy.

"I'm warning you, you know how short my temper is."

Frisket growled.

"Oh ya, sorry there Sora," he stated, gulping. He had seen his companion shoot people for less and he knew that if it weren't for the fact that he was her only datasprite friend left in the net she wouldn't have had a problem putting a hole in his head.

"Wow easy there, uh Sora is it?" AndrAIa stated moving cautiously towards the datasprite holding the gun. "Put down the gun."

Sora looked towards the game sprite that placed a hand onto her gun. Glaring at her she pulled out her other gun, pointing it towards the game sprite whose eyes grew wide.

"No one but me touches my guns." She stated sharply, eyes narrowing beneath her dark black visor, which hid her eyes from the sprites.

Matrix immediately pulled out his gun. "Gun command line! Target lock!" he screamed pointing it towards Sora.

Immediately Sora pulled her gun away from beneath AndrAIa's hand and pointed it towards Matrix, both guns pointed at one of the sprites.

Frisket growled again. Stepping in between Matrix and Sora, he barked loudly at the two.

Troy frowned and put a hand on Sora's shoulder. "Come on Sor, lower the guns. Its only Matrix and AndrAIa."

Growling lightly with reluctance, she put her guns back in their holsters. Matrix, with some reluctance just like the woman, lowered his gun and reattached it to his side.

"Now mates allow me to introduce myself. I am Troy Tracer, and this is my companion…"

"Sora," she interrupted.

Troy shook his head. "Sora AndrAIa Matrix."

"Tracer?" Ray asked, eyes wide beneath his goggle like glasses. Mouse was equally shocked.

Meanwhile Matrix just glared at the woman before her. AndrAIa smiled warmly and reached forwards to shake Sora's hand. Sora shook it soundly and firmly before turning back to look at Matrix.

"But…how can this be?" Ray asked in disbelief.

"I'll explain that part." Sora put in before Troy even opened his mouth to say anything. "Hours ago before the destruction of the twin city, my grandfather, Welman Matrix, came up with a theory of time travel. You see he figured out that, with a special upgrade of one's icon, one could game hop into the past. Because of how a good User keeps backups of its history inside of the system, by using one's upgrade to their icon they can tap into the backup history for systems with their backup history stored. When the upgraded icons are activated in a certain manner, the backup history is able to send one to that point in history believing that you are part of that history."

"So what are you saying, we are only backup of your system? Of Mainframe's future?" Bob asked curiously somewhat in disbelief.

"Sort of," Sora stated calmly, "but not really. Basically the system will send you to the proper time based upon the backup system. To go to the future or to travel back to an appropriate time, as long as the system still has backups being recorded or that certain time on backup history you can regain entry to a certain time period. Unfortunately to activate this time fluctuation a large energy boost must be acquired. Grandfather actually figured that the only way to figuratively gain that much power is to be in the game cube when it first lands, therefore time travel is difficult to time everything must be precisely set for the moment the game cube hits. Grandfather determined that there was a period of three and a half nanoseconds where more power can be harnessed than in any other recorded part of the net but it is nearly impossible to tap into."

"So what, ya guys are sayin yur from the future? Ah find that kinda hard to believe sugahs."

"I know its kind of hard to process buts its true." Troy stated. "After all how would I have known who Matrix and AndrAIa were?"

"Ya could've met em in the net somewhere." She stated harshly.

"Oh? Well I do believe you haven't introduced yourself yet, right?" Troy said with pride. "Your name is Mouse Tracer but currently you are still known simply as Mouse. You have secretly been engaged to Ray Tracer over here for three cycles now but have been a little nervous to tell everyone, what with Daemon, then the two Bobs and Megabyte."

Sora smirked. "Oh and Aunt Dot's password to her organizer was 'Guardian' but when she started to date Bob here she changed her password to 'Bob'. Also my parents," Sora motioned towards AndrAIa and Matrix, "got engaged this morning while lying together in bed at eight at their apartment, 346 Baudway."

Matrix and AndrAIa exchanged worried looks while Troy's cocky smile brightened. Sora just shook her head at her companion and looked towards Matrix.

"Kind of hard to believe such a cocky kid could end up being your kid, huh Matrix?" she asked eyeing him.

Matrix narrowed his eyes.

AndrAIa smiled.

"I was kind of hoping that our children would have less of the short temper and trigger happy attitudes but I guess my wish doesn't come true. C'est le vie." She stated smiling. "And no, from the way you act Sora, its not surprising at all. You and Matrix are so much alike."

Matrix and Sora both glared at AndrAIa.

"Take that back!"

AndrAIa just sighed and turned towards the principle office. "Come on you guys this is going to be a long day I think."

Sora just rolled her eyes beneath her visor, "Alphanuwhatever."

Dot looked over the two newcomers with interest. Eyeing them up and down, she seemed quite pleased with Troy; he seemed polite, without any unnecessary body piercing of any noticeable kind or any unnecessary body mark (such as tattoos) visible. He did, however have two knives, one sword and one dirk, which Dot looked unsure upon, not quite sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing. But Dot knew that he wasn't exactly the "momma's boy" type, he seemed to be a ladies' man but with his politeness he seemed rather charming.

But her soon to be niece quite surprised her. She seemed to be the exact opposite of her companion, the renegade look written all over her and from what Dot had heard of the companion's first meeting with her friends she knew that the renegade look wasn't just a fashion statement, it was true.

She had been quite disappointed with Matrix when she had gotten a good look at him after restart and right now she felt herself feeling that same way. Although she knew that eventually she would grow to either like it or put up with it as she had with Matrix.

Dot merely shook her head and turned back to sit on one of the sofas in Phong's office in the principle office beside Bob while muttering something about "a second renegade in the family".

Sora grimaced lightly.

"If you dislike the way I look or the way I am I would prefer you say it to my face instead of murmuring it." Sora stated sharply. "If you want to insult me at least have the guts to do it to my face."

Dot was taken by surprise. Matrix lightly beamed with pride and Enzo looked at her with a look as though to say "you're my idol". Not many people stood up to Dot Matrix that way, and no family member outside of Matrix had ever done so.

"I merely said that there was another renegade in the family."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"Well Matrix's tend to not be known as renegades but I guess with my little brother the tradition was broken."

"And once again with me it was. Oh and in the future that whole Matrix family reputation is overcome with my reputation. I am known as the Renegade Maiden, the strongest renegade guardian in the net and one of the only remaining fully trained guardians remaining in any system in either the web or the net. So whether you like it or not, Matrixs are known as renegades."

Dot's mouth hung open slightly, although deep inside she was somewhat proud of her niece although the Command.com of Mainframe dare not show it.

Welman Matrix looked towards his future granddaughter and spoke. "Tell me, child, how did you get a hold of my theory?"

"In the future before a period known simply as the _Great Viral Infection_, a few cycles after mom and dad's as well as Mouse and Ray's marriage and the recreation of the Mainframe's sister city, known now as Hard Drive, you entrusted Aunt Dot with your theory leaving it in her organizer. Now ten and a half hours after the initial beginning of the _Great Viral Infection_ when Mainframe finally completely succumbed to the darkness of the infection, when Troy and I were 1-0, Aunt Dot entrusted her organizer to me saying that there was valuable information that could be used to hopefully one day eliminate the viral council of four (who created the _Great Viral Infection_ that has been going since a little before my birth) and sent both Troy, my cousins the twins Mikala and Drake, and I to the sister city Hard Drive which had luckily been evacuated. In our time is has been one hour since that day…"

"But you guys don't look 1-1 mates." Ray added in raising an eyebrow.

"That's because we aren't. Just like my father before me, I wanted to find Mainframe again. Unfortunately Mainframe somehow had been lost within the net or the web somewhere, when we tried to return we couldn't. So Troy and I, being the oldest, and me having the guardian protocol downloaded onto my icon by my uncle before Aunt Dot sent us away from Mainframe, went into the games hoping to find Mainframe again. There had been no explosions or anything along those lines, it just seemed to disappear. I believed that it existed somewhere else. So for ten hours we have searched the web and the net, which was nearly impossible to do because of the virus infection, we searched but were unable to find anything.

"So a few minutes ago, when we were in a small uninfected system called Database in the outskirts of the net, I remembered the old organizer my aunt had given me. It was easy to get the password (a little too easy I might add). When I searched it, I discovered grandfather's theory, actually by accident. I believed that, because of Mainframe's backup being downloaded to Hard Drive before Mainframe's final battle, I could return to the past, hoping to the User that grandfather had downloaded the upgrades into Hard Drive's principle office which luckily he had done."

Matrix rubbed his chin thoughtfully then looked back up at Sora from his spot on one of the sofas next to AndrAIa. "But why did you come to the past? To worn us?"

"Well mates not just to worn, we came to help to help rid the viruses from the net."

"But what help can you be if you can't defeat them in your time?" AndrAIa puzzled.

"They're stronger in our time after eleven hours of infection." Sora concluded.

Phong puzzled for a moment before continuing the questioning. "You said there was a viral council of four, is this correct?"

Sora nodded.

"Four super viruses from places we do not know, mates. Very few have ever seen them face-to-face, most have only seen the effects of their great infection." Troy answered.

"Have ya, Troy, ever seen one of em yourself?" Mouse asked dismally.

"Nah, mates, but Sora has."

Everyone looked up at Sora.

Sora brushed the green of her icon and then her visor lightly and answered the question she knew they all wanted to ask.

"They're evil, full of hatred, that's the only way to describe them."

"How did you survive the encounter?" Matrix pressed.

Sora bit down on her lip and turned away from them all. Silently she stood, departing from the room.

"Let's just say, mates, they wanted her to survive." Troy stated solemnly, leaving the renegade to her thoughts.

And that was all they had to say.

Matrix and AndrAIa lay awake that night, AndrAIa's head leaning upon his chest quietly, listening to his breathing. Silently ran her fingers over his hest in circles, earning a smile from the mighty renegade Matrix. Silently he kissed her forehead than returned his head to its position leaning up on the headboard.

"So what are you thinking about?" she asked after a while.

Matrix merely shrugged the best he could so that he didn't disturb her.

"Come on Sparky, something's bothering you."

Matrix looked down at his soon-to-be wife. Once again he kissed her forehead and leaned his head against the headboard.

"I was just thinking about Sora. Something had her spooked when I asked about how she survived the viral council of four. For some reason she was, well, scared. I don't really know how else to describe her at that moment."

AndrAIa nodded her head and continued to lean on Matrix's chest.

"They did something to her." She stated. "But I don't know what it was. She either doesn't trust us enough to tell us or she just can't. It must have been something pretty drastic."

"I think it has something to do with her visor over her eyes and her icon."

AndrAIa nodded her head and continued to lie there on him.

"I hate thinking our first child has to go through something like that, grow up too fast like we did lover. Our teenaged years were spent much fasted than they should have been."

Matrix didn't answer. He just pushed himself down on the pillows and kissed neck. The games were one thing Matrix didn't ever want to talk about.

End of Chapter One

Please review! I want to know what you think so far! So now we know who the new sprites are, but what is it that the viruses did to Sora? Also what is the group going to do to plan for the Viral Council of Four? And are the council anywhere near as strong as Daemon? All shall be revealed soon.


	2. Chapter Two: I Feel Empty, Sora's Viral ...

Hello everyone! Kitty Matrix with Chapter Two of _The Renegade Maiden_. I didn't get many reviews for the last chapter but I hope I get more for this one.

This chapter goes a little bit more in depth into character and plot development. I would also suggest you read _Too Little Too Late_ (the one part prequel to this fanfic) that goes again into character development. But it isn't necessary.

The time system in this story goes the way I think it does. Please do not e-mail me saying you believe it is this way because I don't think its ever really explained in ReBoot the series.

Nanosecond – Second

Nano – Minute

Millisecond – Hour

Second – Day

Minute – Week

Cycle – Month

Hour – Year

Okay now that I have that over and done with I have one last comment. This story is rated between PG-13 and R depending on how graphic I go into details later. This story shall not become a hentai (NC17), I do not write hentai stories so please do not request them.

**The Renegade Maiden**

**Chapter Two – "I Feel Empty", Sora's Viral Upgrades**

**By Kitty Matrix**

_"Let me go!"_

_"Come on girl, can't you handle this? I thought you were a renegade. Stupid little guardian!"_

_Grunting with pain, Sora collapsed to the ground as five nails dug viciously into the back of her neck. Looking around her one more time, she surrendered to the unconscious spell, which threatened to control her every movement._

_The next thing Sora knew she was lying on a cold and hard medical table. Everything around her was tinted with crimson. Her eyes ached with a burning pain and her stomach and womb ached. Numbers displayed themselves in a vivid yellow in the lower corners of her vision, forever changing as she moved her body. She raised her hands to rub her eyes but realized they couldn't touch her. She quickly felt around her eyes and realized that somehow there was a barrier of some sort, a visor, placed in the way. She slowly gripped the sides and tried to pull it off, to no prevail. Following the contours of the visor around the side of her head, she realized that somehow it was attached to the sides of her head, causing excruciating pain. She searched the ending until she felt something beneath her fingers, a button of some sort. Pressing the button on the right side of the visor, the visor shrunk into a small black square beneath the button on the right side of her head. Before she knew anything, she was thrown back as it seemed an explosion happened from her eyes. Two dangerous red lasers shot out from her eyes, the crimson colour disappearing and being taken over with a hot red, burning colour._

_Quickly she reached for the button again on the right side of her head. Pressing it quickly the visor covered her eyes again._

_"What in the name of the User?" she cursed as she sat up, rubbing her head, her eyes closed tightly. Then opening them again she surveyed the damage she had caused, her hand still nursing her aching head._

_All the equipment inside of the room had been destroyed, as well as the wall that had been behind the equipment. Her eyes wide in surprise, she forgot the pain in her head as she stalked towards the damage._

_The 16-hour-old sprite didn't know what to make of the damage. It was as if the wall had been melted._

_"I see you have seen one of your upgrades, Miss Matrix." Someone growled from behind her. Turning she lay eyes upon the virus that had attacked her earlier._

_"What have you done to me?" she demanded._

_The virus merely smiled._

_"You have been what do you sprites call the procedure? Ah yes, you have been an experiment specimen in a few viral experiments."_

_Sora's eyes burst wide in surprise. She had heard of viral experiments. They were when the new viral council of four decided to try and combine a sprite's code with that of a certain virus or many viruses making them somewhat of a viral sprite. Then they would usually infect the sprite, making them their slave. Sora found it hard to believe that she, a renegade, a guardian, had fallen victim to such a monstrosity._

_"If you still do not believe me look at your icon."_

_Sora's eyes wondered down her new outfit, a black, thick-strapped tank top and tight black shorts. Finally her eyes lay on her icon at the center of a thick black belt. It was the same as always, with the yellow triangle, but instead of yellow framing the black triangle it was green._

_Green was the colour of virus victims. _

_"But why?"_

_"We need a pawn, someone who the people trust. You shall be that pawn."_

_"Pawn? How?"_

_"We weren't expecting you awake so soon, but no matter. We have yet to infect you. When you are infected you shall do our bidding, whether you want to or not."_

_"Never,"_

_"Oh but you shall. Your new viral powers and attributes, as well as viral encoding shall make you our pawn. Believe me or not, Miss Matrix (or should I say Renegade Maiden?) you shall be our pawn."_

_"Never!" Sora shot out towards her, poisonous nails extended. The virus countered quickly, hitting her towards the ground. Sora's legs ached as they banged into something attached to either leg. The numbers at the bottom of her visor began to go off again and some sort of scanner process began. She saw the numbers scan than stop at a simple number 564. Beside the number was written the word "virus class five super virus". Immediately a targeting system appeared before her vision and the words "guns targeting" appeared below it. But the image before her had changed; it was as if she were looking at the floor. Then she realized she was looking through something's targeting system and they were pointed at the ground. Reaching down she felt the two objects on her legs, two guns. She pulled them out and pointed them towards the virus and as she raised them she looked dead on at the virus. The targeting locked into place. Quickly she pulled the triggers on the guns, immediately throwing the virus across the room._

_Sora put the guns away at her sides and the targeting symbols disappeared and once again she was looking through her visor. Quickly Sora dashed towards the hole in the wall formed by her eyes. But before she reached there someone grasped a hold of her wrist. Sora screamed loudly as another hand placed itself onto her head, hitting the button and disabling her visor._

Sora shot awake, breathing heavily with sweat dripping down her forehead. Quickly she reached up, checking her visor to see if it was still in place. When she was confident it was okay she ran her hand down her cool sweating face, she rubbed her forehead with her palm.

It was only a dream. For a nanosecond she had thought it was real and that she was still a 1-6 datasprite guardian who had first undergone the procedures.

Those days still seemed so fresh in her mind although she new they were four hours ago.

Relaxing, she lay her head back down on the pillows. She closed her eyes, and covered her face with her hands as a silent tear formed in her eye and was immediately evaporated by the energy beams forever coursing beneath her visor.

Bob was brought viciously back to reality from his dream after hearing a scream. He immediately shot out of bed, dashing towards the spare bedroom of his apartment. Troy was coming up the hallway next to Bob, the two nearly colliding into each other in the darkness. After exchanging a nervous look Bob pushed open the door to see Sora lying there in the spare bedroom, sweat pooling down her forehead. Her head was in her hands as she lay there amongst the pillows that had been tossed about the bed and the ruffled sheets. Bob reached over hitting on the light.

Both Bob and Troy stumbled into the room, Troy pushing forwards and took a seat next to Sora on the bed.

After a few moments of silence, Troy looked at Sora who seemed oblivious to Bob and Troy's presence or at least she showed no sign of acknowledgment. Finally he spoke. "It was that dream again, wasn't it?"

Finally Sora acknowledged the sprites. She propped herself up on her pillows. Looking deeply into Troy's eyes she relaxed and fell back into the pillows again.

"Sor I swear you haven't slept a whole night since that second. Please Sor, you need some help."

"Give me a break Troy, you know how many times I've tried to get help. What happened has happened and somehow I can't get over it. Somehow I think that's what they planned."

Bob quizzically looked at his future niece.

"Who planned what? What dream?"

Troy turned to look at Bob and Sora did as well. They then exchanged a glance and Sora shook her head at Troy. Troy looked on sympathetically at his friend than turned back to Bob.

"Bob she can't tell you."

"Why not? I want to know why I was awoken by her screaming."

"It's just a nightmare, mate, nothing to worry about."

"Like hell it is. Listen Sora if your worried I'm going to tell Matrix or something don't be. I wont tell him." Bob pleaded.

Finally Sora sighed and beckoned Bob over to the bed. He took a seat next to Troy and looked to Sora who was now sitting up.

"It's a long story, I hope you don't mind missing a few milliseconds of sleep." She commented as she began her tale.

Bob lay awake later as the morning desktop slowly rose. He seemed oblivious to the time; all that he seemed to know at that moment was Sora's story. He could make out every detail of the scene, every detail on the viruses face, every emotion, every movement.

At moments he could swear his eyes were going crimson. At times he could swear he could feel the intense burning her eyes provide. At times he could swear he was sitting in that room, the viruses looking over, the infected binomes probing. It all seemed so heartless and cruel; it all seemed so livid with anger and fear. Life seemed to pool apart in a million different directions.

How could the User let this happen? How could anything, no matter how evil or sinister, do that to an innocent sprite?

Bob didn't know. All that he knew was that his future niece had gone through things he couldn't speak of outside of those walls or outside of the circle of three. He had sworn on the code although his senses begged him to reveal her secrets.

They would remain boiled inside.

_Seven Cycles Later_

AndrAIa waved another binome past who carried another china pattern or dress design tucked in between their hands. AndrAIa swore that if she had to look upon another china pattern, dress design, meal menu, or cake design she would scream.

Quickly pushing herself out of the way of a group of incoming binomes, she walked towards the door of the wedding planner's store and exited out onto Baudway.

She couldn't take this anymore!

Sora exited the wedding planner's shortly after AndrAIa, carrying a few random things the wedding planner had thrown at her before she had left. Sora quickly walked over the closest garbage can and threw all the things in.

"I'm still sticking with the whole you guys should elope thing," she stated simply taking out her zip board.

AndrAIa did the same and the two women headed off towards Dot's Diner. "I'm beginning to think that would be a good idea but you know after the whole Mouse and Ray eloping thing I think Dot would shoot me."

Sora raised an eyebrow.

"Huh, I thought Matrix and I were the ones who did the shooting."

"Let's just say guns run in the family." AndrAIa stated remembering the gun Dot had brought out when they were battling the web creatures that had entered Mainframe.

Sora merely shrugged as they reached the city limits of Hard Drive, which, thanks to Dot, Welman, and Phong with a little help from some old backup files that Phong had managed to find in the principle office databanks had recently be arisen.

Quickly passing through the portal that connected the two cities, the two sprites remained in silence, not quite knowing what to say. AndrAIa had never had this problem with Matrix, and even though Sora and Matrix were so much alike, she knew that there were issues she couldn't touch with Sora. Sora was the type AndrAIa wasn't afraid to talk to but the type AndrAIa knew she couldn't always talk to. Sora's past had clouded her opinion on many things, including her opinions on AndrAIa herself and she knew that Sora would take offence to many things or wouldn't talk about things.

Sora hopped off her zip board and walked past the two Friskets, lying facing each other at the door of the Diner. Sora patted their heads, awakening them quickly and then continued into the diner. AndrAIa patted their heads as well and continued behind her future daughter.

Cecil immediately perked up as the renegade and her past mother entered into the diner.

"How did zee planning go, Miss. AndrAIa?" Cecil questioned as he distastefully watched Sora slump into one of the booths, brushing against him and sending him rocking back and forth.

"Fine Cecil." She concluded entering the booth across from Sora.

Sora rolled her eyes beneath her visor and sighed distastefully.

"What?" AndrAIa asked looking towards Sora, her eyebrow raised.

"This is stupid you know. You should just bring a few people to the principle office and have Phong marry you and Matrix now. I mean come on, all these frilly little details, china patterns, tablecloths; I mean give me a break! They had you picking out the rest room colours for the building facilities that were being created for the wedding!"

AndrAIa laughed lightly.

"Well actually I think they're going this so that they have an excuse to build a new celebration hall. Mainframe hasn't had one for hours and I have a feeling Dot wants one. Somewhere where she can hold functions and stuff."

Sora sighed heavily.

"That's exactly what she's doing. You should've seen the look on her face when the infected guardians and troops first entered Mainframe before we put the firewall up. They arrived right above it and bam! They landed right on the roof and let's just say boom."

"Poor Dot," AndrAIa said fighting the laughter that threatened to spill from within her. Although she knew it wasn't funny and that it was a serious matter she couldn't help but laugh as she pictured the expression on Dot's face as her perfectly designed celebration hall was smashed into rubble by falling guardians.

"One of the only funny memories I have of the stupid viruses," Sora said, her face still remaining grave although she seemed to lighten up for a moment. AndrAIa smiled. It was a look she had become familiar with. Matrix had always used it when they were game hopping and when they first got back to Mainframe. It had taken her hours to get him to smile again but sometimes the expression would resurface when Matrix was thinking about something humorous that had happened in the games.

This time it was Sora's turn to look quizzical. "What?" she asked in puzzlement.

AndrAIa continued to chuckle and shook her head slightly.

"You are just like your father,"

Sora raised and eyebrow and shook her head. "I'm not sure if I should be happy or insulted by that."

"Insulted by what?" Matrix asked as he entered the Diner taking his seat next to AndrAIa and placing his arm around her waste.

"I was just saying that Sora is a lot like you and she replied that she wasn't sure if she should be happy or insulted by that." AndrAIa's smile brightened as Matrix glared at his future daughter who shrugged.

"It was an honest comment," Sora said matter-of-factly.

"Watch it kid," Matrix declared, "you don't what to suddenly find yourself with one limb shot off."

"Only one? Boy what a threat." Sora rolled her eyes. "I've had worse threats from a baby web rider."

"Who says it's a threat?" Matrix asked smugly.

Sora glared at him and held out her hand across the table, removing one of her black gloves that covered up to her fingers that she occasionally wore.

"Do you know why I'm not afraid of you?" she asked smugly.

"Why?"

"Do you see the faint rectangle on my hand?" she asked motioning towards her right hand extended across the table.

"Ya," Matrix stated after searching very hard for it. It had been concealed so well it looked like a simple scar that she'd had since childhood.

Sora pushed upon it lightly, wiggling it slightly in rhythm until it seemed to open like a hatch door. It popped up on what seemed like a tiny hinge. On the inside tiny networks of wires extended and all that could be seen were wires and electronic programming.

"Its an artificial hand," Sora stated shutting the piece of her hand. "I lost my hand in a fight against the viruses' forces when I was 1-5."

"Nice," Matrix stated enthusiastically, interested by the hand. He acknowledged it not as mechanical masterpiece like AndrAIa did, but as an interesting war wound that should be recognized.

"Magnificent, well not that you lost it, but the engineering is incredible. How in the name of the User did anyone ever manage to reach this point in modern day medicine? Its incredible."

Sora rolled her eyes at AndrAIa and pulled her hand away, shutting the small piece of her hand again.

"Ya well its not so nice when a wire comes lose in the middle of a battle."

"Ya but mate it hasn't happened in what, two hours now?" Troy stated laughing as he entered into the conversation when he entered the diner.

"One hour and it can still happen." Sora glared at him.

"Oh well Sor, you've been through worse."

"That I have," she agreed. Sora closed her eyes and leaned back against the back of the booth for a moment before getting up and heading towards the exit of the diner.

"I'm going to go shoot some targets." She said simply before walking away, rubbing her robotic hand lightly.

Sora rubbed her hand across her visor, whipping it clean of the sweat that pooled down her forehead. Sweat…often the only sign that she was tired. She often lost feeling in her body; pushing herself so hard that the viruses' secret upgrade into her system took control. They made it so often she would push herself so hard that she wouldn't feel. When someone touched her, she often didn't know. When she grew tired, often she wouldn't know until she passed out. It was a terrible feeling, a terrible yet great feeling. The power that was needed to harness such abilities were amazing, even though in truth it could end her life. Often she prayed it would, especially at that moment as she took a small calendar out of her pocket. Glancing down at it, she had the date circled on it. Exactly twenty-eight days since the last time she had circled a date. Rubbing her womb softly, her eyes stung as salty tears evaporated again.

She had watched and listened as AndrAIa and Mouse planned for the births of their children. Sora was thankful at those moments that they couldn't see her eyes. 

"I feel empty." She stated solemnly. "Why did this happen to me? I wish I knew. I don't know if I can handle it anymore." Turning over onto her side, Sora lay there in the green grass of one of Mainframe's parks.

The evening desktop began to overpower as the afternoon desktop set in the distance, releasing a beautiful pink and red scene overhead on the horizon as the black darkness of the night time desktop pushed the second away. It felt to final to Sora, as though the second were dying twixt the milliseconds gone by. Wrapping her arms around herself, she shut her eyes calmly, allowing the rare feeling of exhaustion to sweep over her.

She hadn't slept lately. The dreams seemed more and more frequent as the second went by. She knew that she was running out of time before the Viral Council of Four would first show their faces.

Was that what the dreams were signifying? The coming of the Council?

Sora didn't know. All that she knew was that she needed sleep.

_…Sora put the guns away at her sides and the targeting symbols disappeared and once again she was looking through her visor. Quickly Sora dashed towards the hole in the wall formed by her eyes. But before she reached there someone grasped a hold of her wrist. Sora screamed loudly as another hand placed itself onto her head, hitting the button and disabling her visor._

_Then all went dark. The world around her seemed to shatter. She wasn't the little 1-6 hour old sprite that she had been just a moment before in the dream. She had just been in the scene again, back when she first discovered her upgrades._

_But it was different. Nothing was there. Her visor was still there but the colours were gone. The crimson light was gone. All that she saw was black, white a grey. The occasional flash of lightening across her vision glowed with a bright white and grey. Everything around her was black._

_It seemed like an eternity before anything else happened. A figure in the darkness seemed to appear. A silhouette of a woman, with short hair seemed to stand before her. Ashe reached out a hand for Sora. _

_She could hear a soft familiar voice around her. "Sora…help me…I need you. Help me…"_

_Sora could feel the presence of the person reaching for her and Sora couldn't help but reach back._

_"Help me…"_

_Reaching…_

_"Help me…"_

_Reaching…_

_"Help me…"_

_Reaching…_

_Help me!"_

_Almost there…_

_"HELP ME!"_

_But as Sora seemed to reach the figure's hand it happened. Four hands, each different, seemed to grab a hold of the figure and pulled at her. Sora's eyes grew wide as she continued to reach. Finally the figure, screaming in agony, was released and tumbled to the ground. Sora wanted to run to her but something inside her told her to stop. Sora could feel the temperature drop and she shivered. She could see her breath against the dark background of the abyss before her._

_She could now hear a silent cry. The figure was crying. Still Sora wish to reach for her, but when she finally gathered the courage to go to her the crying stopped. She could sense the anger from her, as though the figure hated Sora._

_The figure rose to her feet, floating into the air. Sora could feel a strong wind coming from her direction and Sora's braided hair flew backwards behind her. She could feel the wind push her backwards yet Sora pushed on, reaching towards the figure, trying to get to her._

_"You…you did this to me. You monster." The figure rasped, her anger rising. "You destroyed everything I was."_

_Sora couldn't say a word. All that she knew was the figure seemed to form a ball of energy in her fist and shoot it towards Sora._

_"DIE!"_

_That was the last thing Sora was conscious of._

Sora shot awake. Her eyes darted around her, looking desperately to see if she was still caught in the nightmare. The darkness of the night around her was somehow welcoming. It was a friendly darkness, a darkness that showed small pixels in the sky and a large pixel mound in the centre of the sky, that the binomes called their moon. A night time desktop had never seemed so comforting to Sora before.

What was that dream about? Sora didn't know. All that she knew was that at that moment, the green of her icon was glowing.

End of Chapter Two

Please review! I want to know what you think so far! I really do. I want to know if you like the way the story is going. But believe me, there are most twists ahead.

Now we know what the viruses did to Sora, or do we? The wedding is approaching. But amongst the planning for the beautiful wedding, an evil threat lurks and planning has begun to deal with it. But will it truly be enough to stop the evil viruses or will Sora let her emotions get the better of her? Chapter three holds many answers.


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